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Episode103
Heralds of Yoz We picked up the action in the Dragon Mother's Brain chamber with our final goal before us, but not quite sure how to achieve it. We knew that we needed to strip Yaw's Brain of its various defenses, stick a Prism of Cleansing in it and hit it with the most Wrathfully Righteous Gaze that we could manage with how ever many Fisters were left on line at that point, but now we were faced with 4 separate Brain Nodes, and were not necessarily sure as to how to proceed? In between Rounds we had a strategy session that raised more questions than answers; obviously we needed to dispatch the Gaze deflecting Dark-Shard Crystals and penetrate the reflective coatings on the Brains, but did we need to do all 4? If we got a Prism in one, would it affect the other 3? If we needed to do them all, were we supposed to them all at once, or in a sequence? We decided our first priority was to spend some time figuring out how we were going to handle the quad-brain-dark-shard-anti-gaze onion skin of defenses lying between us and total victory. Pete was first to provide insight when he did his special double academic skill volley on SF 0, engaging both his extensive knowledge of Science and his ridiculous levels of Prophecy Lore. Kiwi followed up shortly after with a Mystic Lore that confirmed Pete's prognosis; we would have to destroy all four brains simultaneously in order to buffer enough levels sufficient to engulf the toughest Dragon Reavers. Holy shit this is going to be hard, (even without squads of Reaver Assassins back-stabbing us at will!). Pete, having finally achieved a Speed Factor 1 Strike after trailing the rest of the Party in that department for the vast majority of the Campaign, then tried a test shot at one of the dark star shards to see how tough they were. The verdict: they were really tough, with astronomical RF (200-ish?). We despaired a bit at this point of ever being able to destroy them, but our faith was immediately restored when Joe let loose a brutal critical blast that the Herald of Yaw holding the crystal shard tried to defend, but fumbled badly! Without RF, the Shard was completely obliterated in one strike, exploding in a concussive blast, (that may have been due to the crackling remnant of red energy left from our Gaze attack?). Moments later, Kiwi had lightning strike again with a reversed but similarly blessed 1-in-400 combo Natural 20 Defend against a Critical Reaver Assassin Strike to avoid a devastating hit. We rejoiced as the Prophecy of Light shone brightly again. It was about this time that Oz managed to extricate himself from the neuro-electric perma-stun field that he had been helplessly stuck in for the whole first part of the fight when it momentarily abated. Sensing that there was no time like the present to enact the 'end of times miracle' he sacrificed 50DC to fire a cataclysmic arrow volley at another dark-shard. The DR was nowhere near enough to damage it, but 52 x 4 PD was plenty to leave it perforated and vulnerable. Joe quickly took advantage of the opportunity and blasted the shard into oblivion. Two down! Meanwhile, the Reaver assassins had been hitting us with their customary combination of nastiness and bull shit. They were particularly brutal to our AC brothers who had little armor left after three preceding rounds of epic combat. The Defenders were fairing better thanks to Pete's progenitor-powered Anti-Reaver field, but that was to be short-lived. The Assassins had something special for Pete in the form of a 'no field for you' Field-Nazi attack that deactivated it for the duration of the combat (or campaign, in our case). Pete had a response though! He had his Nano-deploying Homunculous Multi-Tool repair the field rapidly using its Battlefield Engineering Program while he continued the fight, so we were protected once again. We began to move up the left flank within the Protective -18 to Reaver's Strike & Defend Bubble of Pete's field, but on the way Oz scored a lucky hit and nat-20ed the lower right brain-casing with a Crack Arrow volley. It wasn't powered up by the end-of-times miracle but still managed an impressive 48PD which was enough to crack it open and expose the 'dripping, Soul Skin encrusted' brain within. The Prophecy was with us again! Meanwhile, back within the Anti-Reaver Field the Assassins were dead-set on divesting Pete of the Progenitor Field Generator. Working together, they managed to first hack it off of him and then deactivate it. It's effect saved Kiwi from big damage one last time, though, as he defended his way out of some nasty Assassin strikes! Kiwi then called for a healing convocation but Joe and Oz were out of range. Joe was still fighting Assassins near the southern tip of the brain and Oz was charging off after the remaining dark-shards. Speaking of which, Oz fired up the 'end of times' miracle one more time, sacrificed another 50DC, and blasted a devastating hard wind Arrow Volley across the two upper brain-cases catching both Heralds and one of the Shards in the blast. Unfortunately, the other Shard was on the floor and out of range after Pete had disarmed it earlier. Nevertheless, a new Mystic record was achieved with a whopping 216 PD (54 x 4) scouring the RF off everything caught in the blast. He quickly finished off the shard next segment with a non-miracle volley. Three down! Oz was then struck with a great sense of satisfaction shortly before experiencing a serious headache emanating from the sinuses. He was feeling Yaw's connection again but what did it mean? He barely had time to consider it when he was struck with a red blast of energy from the ceiling (our subverted Gaze energy returning?) which filled him with a sense of untapped power. The rest of the party saw Oz momentarily freeze, as he does when experiencing visions, and then the eyes of his Avatar form turned red crackling with mysterious energies. We called it there with three shards destroyed, one brain-case cracked open, no more anti-reaver field, and Oz sliding ever closer becoming "Yoz". Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk